JEDEC History - 2000s

As use of the Internet grew in the late 1990s, semiconductor sales rapidly expanded into communications and Internet infrastructure markets. But overly optimistic projections about the growth of the Internet didn’t materialize, and the bubble burst in 2001. Semiconductor sales, which had exceeded $200 billion in 2000, fell more than 30 percent to $139 billion in 2001. They wouldn’t reach $200 billion again until 2004.

At the same time, the chip market was becoming more global. In 2003, the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) was approved. It took effect three years later. The directive, which restricted the use of six substances including lead, prompted the industry to adopt lead-free solders. As manufacturers switched to lead-free materials, JEDEC teamed with IPC – Association Connecting Electronics Industries as well as International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) to develop or revise several standards to ensure quality and reliability of these new components and processes.

As developing nations such as China and India demanded more and more technology, international standards became ever more important. China – already the third largest market for chips – was the world's fastest growing market for semiconductors in 2003. JEDEC established relationships with Chinese companies, working toward including China in the organization’s international standardization efforts. In May 2008, JEDEC opened an office in Beijing.

This decade saw an explosion of mobile devices, wireless connectivity and cloud computing. Skyrocketing sales of smart phones and tablets drove innovations to make memory even smaller and lower power. In response, JEDEC published a standard for low-power DDR. It also worked with the MultiMediaCard Association to develop standards for e•MMC™, an embedded non-volatile memory system used in a wide range of consumer electronics applications. In 2008, the MMCA merged with JEDEC, and many of its member companies became JEDEC members.

Mega-data centers with thousands of servers enabled cloud computing, whereby users could both process and store data in the cloud rather than (or sometimes in addition to) on premise or on their own devices. JEDEC developed standards for innovative memory technologies that enabled those server farms, including solid-state drives (SSDs).

In 2008, the world economy tumbled into the Great Recession, and semiconductor revenues fell significantly over the next two years.

Timeline

2000

JEDEC publishes DDR spec – JESD-79.

Semiconductor sales exceed $200 billion.

Jack Kilby receives the Nobel Prize for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit.